Tom Shales, TV critic for the Washington Post, reviews the British prime ministerial debate last night and catches this item:
And if Americans have had presidential debates for 50 years, the British have had -- and been complaining about --"the National Health" since 1948. Questions about the National Health Service contained details that could well give the jitters to Americans already worried about recently approved health-care reform. Brown vowed that henceforth, all necessary operations would be performed within 18 weeks of diagnosis, which didn't sound very speedy and made one wonder how long the wait is now.
Good point! 18 weeks is the goal? What is it now? And what if they don't reach that goal?
And so, we might wonder, what does this mean sort of stultification portend for the US, now that we are moving down the same bureaucratic path?